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JWBaudio

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Posts posted by JWBaudio

  1. Best sounding/most expensive - DPA 4060s, though probably not worth it running G3/G4

     

    Solid choice is always the COS-11, I've been pleased with their sound and they have nice price point. Plus they're pretty standard in rental kits if you need to pick up extra wires for a job.

     

    If cost is a big consideration the B3 would be my choice, I think they offer some of the best sound for the price.

     

    B6 - a lot has already been said.  I keep a few in my kit for the 'nothing else will do' situations, and when those came up I was happy to have them, but the sound quality isn't great, it overloads pretty quickly, and those little caps have a tendency to disappear faster than you can order them.

  2. On 4/14/2018 at 2:17 PM, Dalton Patterson said:

    This was my understanding. Thank you for clarifying. I know legal advice is not cheap or easy to hear. 

     

    You know who else was big into this kinda legalese and contract negotiation,

     

    George Lucas. 

     

    We all know how that turned out for him. 

     

    IIRC he only took rights for merchandising from Star Wars. Lucas basically got rich off of action figures and lunch boxes. 

    There was a presentation in Chicago on entertainment law (w/ focus on filmmaking), so figured it would be a good time to pose the question, since it's one a lot of people seem to have.

     

    Legalese and contract negotiation can drive people crazy, especially if you or production is being a stickler on phrasings and comma placement, but I figure it's better to have everything on my end as 'correct' as can be - and on paper, incase it's needed later, especially dealing with things like payment/credit.

     

    And yup.  Made a killing on merchandising. 

  3. As far as work for hire/contractor agreements:

     

    Spoke with an entertainment attorney today, and the official recommendation (without having specifics) is to file/issue the production co. a cease and desist letter which lays out that they haven’t fulfilled the contract terms and therefore copyright remains with you (the Recordist/creator of the work) and they have no right to use. That opens the door for further legal remedies, all the way up to being able to prevent release of the project until contract terms are satisfied. 

  4. On 4/8/2018 at 9:24 AM, juanignacio said:

    Slightly off topic...

    Curious if any one has a hack to fit a block lithium 9 volt into a comtek receiver.  

    do you mean a 9v battery eliminator?

  5. On 4/3/2018 at 12:46 AM, JonG said:

    The main reasons why many people use comteks over better sounding brands is because the range is pretty good, they’re not too pricey, and if they sound too good to anybody else listening, then you’d be potentially dealing with back seat drivers. That is to say, you’ll get more people interfering with your work and methods if they can hear every little detail. They need to hear the dialogue and nothing else. 

    +1

     

    Everyone knows they're just for reference so nobody cares too much about the audio quality, they're virtually indestructible (which is good when people leave them around like cups of coffee), battery life speaks for itself, as does price point, and the range is a big + for me, it's nice when people at the far reaches of set can hear that we're in the middle of a take incase lockdown wasn't called by them or what have you, & everywhere has them stocked by the dozens for last minute rentals. Noticed it tends to work best for monitoring in follow vehicles as well. (In my experience).

     

    If they can hear the dialogue, job done.

  6. Only once on an indie.  Production felt very, *ahem*, sketchy from my first day on set, and DIT never asked for anything so I quietly held onto everything. Crew was supposed to get paid on the last day and only a handful actually got paid, I wasn't one of them.  So they got 2 weeks past wrap, realised they didn't get any audio files from me.  Tired to convince me to transfer them immediately and the would pay 'soon' Haha.  Ended up meeting in person to exchange files and payment. Turned out fine.

     

    But it's like half depressing the trigger on a bomb, only to be used as a measure of last resort.The key is to not announce your plans ahead of time to hold media until payment, just quietly go about your business until they realise they're missing the stuff and come knocking.

     

    Not something I would do for cancelled days though, that's a completely different ballgame. Did you have a cancellation policy in the contract? Or at least one in writing somewhere like a website or email exchanged with the client? Without anything written somewhere I can't really see many options. Had a client cancel a couple weeks ago, the day of, with crew already at location, then tell me they wouldn't do the 100% cancellation fee because they didn't feel it was 'fair'. I only got paid because it was in my contract (which they obviously didn't read).  Some of the other crew unfortunately had no course of action. 

  7. 58 minutes ago, Bob K said:

    "Contractor agrees to provide first class work. Contractor has the skills, physical fitness, resources, expertise, and experience necessary and appropriate to provide the services and perform all of his obligations under this Agreement in a prompt, competent, efficient, and effective manner."

     

    Sample of what this SHOULD look like from a recent contract:

     

    "1. Services. Crew Member shall personally provide all services to Company as may be requested by Company in connection with the Film, as well as all services that are consistent with the duties of first class individuals of Crew Member’s position in the motion picture industry, as that term is commonly understood, during the pre-production, production, and wrap of the Film, as applicable. At all times during the term of Crew Member’s services hereunder, Crew Member will promptly and faithfully comply with all of Company’s reasonable instructions, directions, requests, rules, and regulations. Crew Member will perform Crew Member’s services conscientiously and to the full limit of Crew Member’s talents and capabilities when and wherever reasonably required or desired by Company and in accordance with Company’s reasonable instructions and directions in all matters, including those involving artistic taste and judgment."

     

    So I know what they're getting at but, going back to what Philip said, it sounds like they might just not be knowledgeable enough/have the resources to call on to write a competent contract. Maybe send back some suggestions to help guide them along.

     

    As to the producer just firing you at the end of the day, unlikely, but it's a Right to Termination clause, something in a lot of contracts I've seen, but it's always been followed up by couple sentences saying in effect that if that happens I have to compensated for services rendered up to that point. So if terminated at they end of the day, they would still have to pay me for that day.

     

    Take them step by step on Monday explaining what isn't working for you, provide some examples of good wording.  Offer to work with them on getting a good contract together, send them samples of some good ones you've seen, gently reminding them that contracts are there to protect companies as much as contractors, so it's mutually beneficial for them to have a better contract moving forward. At the end of the day, stick to your guns, if that are that rigid on contract, in my experience they'll be just as rigid on set, and that's not going to be a good work environment.

     

  8.  

    14 hours ago, Bob K said:

    “Contractor understands that this is the sole agreement and no other agreement whether verbal or written has been understood or undertaken in this matter.  This is the final agreement; no further negotiation will be taken into consideration by either Producer or Contractor.”

    This is strange to put in a contract...I would take that to mean there can be no renegotiation after both parties sign, because it seems a weird thing to make retroactive. I mean, obviously a rate had to be agreed before the contract was sent? Plus language is strange. Who knows.

     

    The rest of it just sounds like they have no insurance and are trying to cover their own backsides - something to be cautious of.

  9. 13 hours ago, IronFilm said:

    Unrealistic though to ask for a build day on a small shoot (although camera department still often enough get gear days even for short films), but yes, if I was doing a whole feature film with someone else's gear I'd absolutely 100% want a build up day beforehand. 
     

    Totally agree, it’s less about the request itself and more about convincing productions to just use my gear rather than try and provide their own.  And it’s worked so far on a few projects. 

  10. On 3/18/2018 at 11:11 PM, RPSharman said:

    They don't supply camera without giving the DP or the 1st AC the rental list for approval, so they should have supplied you with the sound equipment list, and you could have added to it all the extra things they should (and you would) include.

    Never taken a job without my equipment, just a whole bunch of stuff that can go wrong with that.

     

    That said, and I don't know how common this is, but I did go so far as to add a clause into my contract for indies, that essentially says if production is providing equipment then I get a build day with the kit, just like camera gets, and I have to sign off on it being up to the job I was hired to do. Then I'll let the UPM know if something is missing or there's an issue and go from there. Even if you look over a gear list ahead of time and it looks like everything you need, there could be operational issues that you could only tell by testing and setting things up, and I don't want to deal with those issues on day 1, nor would production I imagine. 

     

    And yea, own headphones and harness are always with me.

  11. 23 hours ago, Rich Reilly said:

    And yes..selectively muting outs between rolls seems nice as well...though not necessarily an easier task depending on the hardware

    This is an excellent idea, though yes, with the current interface I imagine this would be best utilised via Wingman rather than switches, knobs, and menus settings. 

     

    Come me to think of it, a separate screen in Wingman for managing outputs and some other settings, especially AES would be outstanding!

  12. 24 minutes ago, Rick Reineke said:

    I don't think the metal pole has much to do with it. Just a matter of a clearer line-of-sight and away from obstructions..

    +1 No benefits from the pole itself.

     

    Never seen it done in person.  The rigs I've seen pics of have used a C-stand or similar to hoist a bunch of Rx above the crowd, again back to clear line of sight to reduce interference...Perhaps that is what Lewis meant. Do you have links to these articles you mentioned?

     

    At that point though I think it would make more sense to SMa mod the Rx.  Senni and Sony units can be done pretty cheaply & easily.

     

    I recall some photos of @waimbonk's rig from Instagram.

    Screen_Shot_2018-03-09_at_10_59_24.png

    Screen Shot 2018-03-09 at 10.59.54.png

  13. SD Cards: If you're brand loyal to SanDisk (like me), go for the Extreme Pros, they have the same write speed as the Sound Devices, I've noticed the Extremes can    struggle a bit on days with higher track counts, as I think they have less than half the write speed (40MB/s???) of the Pros, but if you do primarily interview or corporate and really (I mean REALLY) need to save money then the Extreme are probably fine, but I prefer to stock Pros. Both are on the approved media list. https://www.sounddevices.com/support/approved-media/6-series-approved-media-list

     

    CF Cards: I always have an Extreme Pro CF loaded, so no matter what the job is, I know my backup media is always fine to take over as primary if all my SD cards suddenly catch fire or something. ;-)

  14. Got some hands on time with the bag yesterday, the actual bag shown in the above video actually, and it did seem to handle a bit more quietly the many other bags, which is a +. Felt much more secure and solid than many other bags, even those that have some sort of frame built in. Dropped in a 411 I had with me and it seemed to fit well enough, but still felt a touch loose, but was secure enough that I wouldn't worry.  I suspect that's a compromise between getting the receivers in and out a little easier without quickly wearing out the elastic and how tightly they actually need to grip the receivers to be secure, something to help extend the life of the bag, which to me is a key part of Portabrace (how long their bags last). Seems like a good bag to me.

     

    I only got about 5-10 minutes with it, but it seemed to have a bit less storage and organisation options than comparably sized bags.  Is that something anyone else is finding?

  15. Didn't really sound like booming from below to me when the cars passed.  Probably a good boom op with a spotter booming from above, that's how I'd go about it.

     

    Letterman was probably a lav using a Rycote overcover. I've had very good results with those in the wind, and maybe something modular like the B6 with a 'very crisp' cap to compensate for the extra muffling?

     

    Interested in finding out.

     

    Anybody know who the recordist was?

  16. How prominent is it?

     

    I am surprised at it being picked up on the lavs.

     

    Proximity of boom/lavs & talent to camera?

     

    Can't help on gain staging with your rig, maybe someone who runs an F8 with similar radios could help on that.

     

    If there is NO noise, no traffic, nothing from a street, no bodies in the room, no camera fan, no movement in the scene, then I would expect to hear that high pitched whir a little, but nothing that would cause a problem. And you typically can only get that kind silence shooting on a stage, in a studio, or in a house way out in the middle of nowhere.

     

    Could just be having bad luck with noisy follow focuses that haven't been properly maintained or are 'inexpensive'. They are designed to be very quiet given their function and usual proximity to sensitive microphones, and I haven't had one pose a problem on any projects yet. More often it's the camera's cooling fan I'm hearing long before the follow focus.

     

    Could always ask them to not pull focus and just move the camera in and out. :-)

  17. I actually chose to sell here in the US. Most of my 24s ended up going to someone just out of school on the west coast, looking to build a small pro level kit quick to start getting jobs and then upgrade over the next year or so. So the block wasn't as much of a concern to him. Ended up selling at about 10% off MSRP, but still much easier than dealing with international sale or reblocking. And yes, market is hugely saturated, I've been hard pressed to see anything on consignment that doesn't fall in the 'danger zone'.

     

    On 25/01/2018 at 12:11 PM, Eric Toline said:

    I know mixers here in the states who are still using Blocks 27, 28, & 29 and are not having any issues.

    I've heard the same thing. I still keep a couple 27s. I hardly ever use them (about once a year), and I wouldn't use them in the city, but I've done some very remote things in MI & WI with them and didn't have any issues.

  18. In a gig based economy there is always to take something whenever it's offered, even if that means not having an days off for a month and giving yourself ridiculously short turnarounds.  The long hours aren't for everyone, even if they aren't impacting your relationships, but I've always gotten a rush from working long odd hours.  And there are some perks, I've gotten to see a lot of sunrises over lakes and oceans for one, you learn where all the 24hr coffee places are, and there are some locations where it's really amazing to be there after regular hours.  But again, not for everyone. I think the worst I had was a scheduling error where 2 productions changed their scheduling last minute so I ended up with a window working like 29 hours straight or something like that since it was too late for them for find another mixer to fill in. 

     

    I have been particularly careful about protecting my physical health, I always insist on working from a cart when possible to keep strain on my back and shoulders low, my cart packs in smaller stackable SKB cases so I can keep loading/unloading weights low. Working in a bag, if it's going to be a long day with a fully loaded bag I keep one of those wrap-able lower back braces on hand since that's where I tend to take the most strain. 

     

    For mental health, a lot of keeping my life stress free comes down to pre-production, making sure I have a plan for every shooting day and am not just going to wing it, good communication with the 1st AD all day long will help keep you informed so you can smoothly adjust to any changes.  A lot of stress I noticed in my early days came from me stressing about noises on location that we couldn't eliminate and things like that, whereas now I inform inform production it's as good as we can get it, ask how much tolerance they want to give (things like traffic when they haven't remembered to close a street), and just send a quick email to post that this one will be more of a headache.  I also carry a book for downtime (of which there can be an ample amount of for sound on some days).  But I think mental health comes down to using ample communication and planning to reduce stress.

     

    I do try and schedule some times off. I try and give myself a week or more around Christmas, and a couple other spread through the year, and yes that sometimes means turning down a gig, and people I typically work with have always been very understanding about that.  I try to schedule it so they line up right after a feature, but as long as there are some breaks spread around in my schedule all is well. 

     

    I haven't noticed any consequences for talking about this openly, and I hope there never will be. It's a conversation I think we all need to be having far more often and far more in depth. 

  19. On 31/01/2018 at 7:39 PM, Philip Perkins said:

    Overlaps, calling them or not, is a director thing.  You can point out that it is happening, but beyond that it's up to them to decide if that will fly or not.  I learned the hard way that many directors do not appreciate the intrusion into their prerogative where the soundie calls all the overlaps. In an interview situation the director has to take control of this--the sound person does not have the standing with the talent to continually remind them about talking over each other.  There is an old saying in the studio music recording biz: "Don't blame me, I just recorded what you played!".

    I find the same thing with directors. I will make them aware of a problem and then it’s their call. I wouldn’t interrupt a take. More often than not, if we’re in the middle of a take and something arises,  a director will glance my way and look for a signal if it’s become completely and unusable, if it’s ok to keep going, or if we need another take. Depending on my response the director may keep rolling or cut, but not my call to cut.

     

    I have reminded actors about jumping lines a couple times, but it wasn’t continuous, and it was only with talent I was in good standing and able to be more friendly with on longer shoots or who I’ve worked with a lot. 

  20. https://www.gothamsound.com/product/fleximount

     

    Best 50 bucks I've ever spent, have 5 now and they're probably one of the most used things in my kit. Great for putting a mic just about anywhere and suspension mount pops right on no problems, because yeah, again as Ty said, it always needs some sort of isolation. 

     

    Other than that I've got some Cardellinis, Pony clamps, desktop stands, kick drum stands, etc. just get some options in your kit and be creative and do what works.

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